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Wow, you really want to be in Jacksonville or at Shands...you've got those 2 programs listed a collective 5 times!
"Official" 2007 ROL Thread
- Thread starter Dr. Will
- Start date
Wow, you really want to be in Jacksonville or at Shands...you've got those 2 programs listed a collective 5 times!
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There are no middle of the road med schools in Texas. They all rock.
I agree, and the change is now reflected in my writeup.
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Wow, you really want to be in Jacksonville or at Shands...you've got those 2 programs listed a collective 5 times!
Good thing your ROL is in. Cause I count 4 not 5. I think inability to get past 4 is an automatic DNR status.
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1. Indy
2. Carolinas
3. Pitt
4. UC Davis
5. Utah
6. Arizona
7. West Virginia
8. UC Irvine
9. Maricopa
I only applied to 3 year programs, and really would be happy at 1-7. For myself, Indy was a clear-cut number one, and 2-6 were kind of a blur. I liked WVU, but thought it might be a little more difficult to come back out west after residency. At UCI, money would be very tight, and I just didn't get a good vibe at Maricopa. I'd be happy to answer any particular questions about why I ranked them the way I did via PM.
2. Carolinas
3. Pitt
4. UC Davis
5. Utah
6. Arizona
7. West Virginia
8. UC Irvine
9. Maricopa
I only applied to 3 year programs, and really would be happy at 1-7. For myself, Indy was a clear-cut number one, and 2-6 were kind of a blur. I liked WVU, but thought it might be a little more difficult to come back out west after residency. At UCI, money would be very tight, and I just didn't get a good vibe at Maricopa. I'd be happy to answer any particular questions about why I ranked them the way I did via PM.
D
deleted109597
Wow, you really want to be in Jacksonville or at Shands...you've got those 2 programs listed a collective 5 times!
4 times. I guess I could post the other side of that list.
1 U Florida HSC-Jacksonville U Florida-Wolfson Children's
2 Eastern VA Med School-VA EVMS-King's Daughter's Children's
3 Med Coll Georgia-Augusta MCG-Peds
4 Medical University of SC MUSC-Peds
5 University Hosp-Cincinnati-OH CCHMC
6 Duke Univ Med Ctr-NC Duke-Peds
7 West Virginia University SOM WVU-Peds
8 U Florida Prog-Shands Hosp UF-AGH Peds
9 Pitt County Mem Hosp/Brody SOM-NC ECU-Peds
10 U Alabama Med Ctr-Birmingham Birmingham Children's
11 U Kentucky Med Ctr UK-Peds
12 U Florida HSC-Jacksonville UF-AGH Peds
13 U Florida Prog-Shands Hosp UF-Wolfson Children's
So it does make a little more sense when you consider the bottom 2 are basically last resort stay married matches
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1. Christiana
2. Temple
3. Penn
4. Maryland
5. Albert Einstein
6. Yale
7. Maryland EM-PEDS
8. GWU
9. Thomas Jefferson
10. Indiana EM-PEDS
11. Arizona EM-PEDS
12. Pitt
13. Indiana
14. U Arizona
15. Emory
16. UNM
17. Georgetown/WHC
18. Drexel
This list changed a LOT recently with some bad news from the lawyer handling my partner's green card application, but after many deep breaths I'm okay with it. Location in/commuting distance from Philadelphia moved many programs to the top and resulted in the EM/PEDS programs sinking way down the list, although I loved all 3. PM with any questions - good luck everyone!
2. Temple
3. Penn
4. Maryland
5. Albert Einstein
6. Yale
7. Maryland EM-PEDS
8. GWU
9. Thomas Jefferson
10. Indiana EM-PEDS
11. Arizona EM-PEDS
12. Pitt
13. Indiana
14. U Arizona
15. Emory
16. UNM
17. Georgetown/WHC
18. Drexel
This list changed a LOT recently with some bad news from the lawyer handling my partner's green card application, but after many deep breaths I'm okay with it. Location in/commuting distance from Philadelphia moved many programs to the top and resulted in the EM/PEDS programs sinking way down the list, although I loved all 3. PM with any questions - good luck everyone!
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1 U Massachusetts Med School - MA is home to me and the wife, great flight experience, well-established fellowships, brand new ED.
2 York Hospital-PA - awesome PD, best 'gut feel', massive perks, very close to #1, great vibe during second look.
3 St Vincent Mercy Med Ctr-OH - strong clinical program, 40% scene calls for flight, awesome moonlighting opps even in first year. Slipped down after a +/- second look.
4 University at Buffalo - EMS, US fellowship opps. Pay increases per year not good at all. "Lake effect" will be tattooed to my ass by the end of residency if I match there.
5 Long Island Jewish Med Ctr-NY - Good gut feel, massive pay. Not Manhattan.
6 Boston Univ Med Ctr-MA - Very impressive program, but I felt a little out of place. The 2-4 thing gave me the heebies, and the guaranteed prelim medicine year didn't help as it's rumored to kill weaker smaller interns. Otherwise I would have ranked higher.
7 U Nevada Affil Hosp-Las Vegas - had high hopes for LV, but the PD seemed a bit of a mismatch, and attempts to schedule a second look were blown off, so down it went.
8 UMDNJ-New Jersey Med-Newark - division of surgery ...
9 Beth Israel Med Ctr-NY - this one broke my heart to rank so low, as everyone was super nice there. But having a family with kids made Manhattan living very hard to fathom, even with subsidized apartments.
10 Maimonides Med Ctr-NY - Seemed like a good program, but I felt that I would need a Star Trek universal translator if I did residency there. Love to work on my espanol, but lower Urdu or Kalihari click tongue - no thanks.
11 Kern Medical Center-CA - No PACS, no EMR. Not a great family location.
Location/cost of living and gut feel/program were equally important to me, as the rank list would have drastically pumped some of the middle level ranks up.
Being so candid will probably burn my ass sometime later in life. Oh well. God have mercy on us all.
2 York Hospital-PA - awesome PD, best 'gut feel', massive perks, very close to #1, great vibe during second look.
3 St Vincent Mercy Med Ctr-OH - strong clinical program, 40% scene calls for flight, awesome moonlighting opps even in first year. Slipped down after a +/- second look.
4 University at Buffalo - EMS, US fellowship opps. Pay increases per year not good at all. "Lake effect" will be tattooed to my ass by the end of residency if I match there.
5 Long Island Jewish Med Ctr-NY - Good gut feel, massive pay. Not Manhattan.
6 Boston Univ Med Ctr-MA - Very impressive program, but I felt a little out of place. The 2-4 thing gave me the heebies, and the guaranteed prelim medicine year didn't help as it's rumored to kill weaker smaller interns. Otherwise I would have ranked higher.
7 U Nevada Affil Hosp-Las Vegas - had high hopes for LV, but the PD seemed a bit of a mismatch, and attempts to schedule a second look were blown off, so down it went.
8 UMDNJ-New Jersey Med-Newark - division of surgery ...
9 Beth Israel Med Ctr-NY - this one broke my heart to rank so low, as everyone was super nice there. But having a family with kids made Manhattan living very hard to fathom, even with subsidized apartments.
10 Maimonides Med Ctr-NY - Seemed like a good program, but I felt that I would need a Star Trek universal translator if I did residency there. Love to work on my espanol, but lower Urdu or Kalihari click tongue - no thanks.
11 Kern Medical Center-CA - No PACS, no EMR. Not a great family location.
Location/cost of living and gut feel/program were equally important to me, as the rank list would have drastically pumped some of the middle level ranks up.
Being so candid will probably burn my ass sometime later in life. Oh well. God have mercy on us all.
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1. UNM- laid back, mountains, underserved population, great people
2. Harbor
3. Arizona
4. Carolinas
5. Maine
6. Utah
7. Stanford
8. UC Davis
9. Highland
10. Denver
11. Fresno
12. Penn
13. Yale
14. Maricopa
15. BI
16. BGW- Got a kick out of the post comparing Brigham and UNM since these were my bookends. Just goes to show you how subjective the interview process is.
My ranking were largely about the people I met since I beleive you can get the training you want out of any of these programs. Looks like Cincy can lose the pager system next year and just have the interns communicate through SDN. Best of luck everyone.
2. Harbor
3. Arizona
4. Carolinas
5. Maine
6. Utah
7. Stanford
8. UC Davis
9. Highland
10. Denver
11. Fresno
12. Penn
13. Yale
14. Maricopa
15. BI
16. BGW- Got a kick out of the post comparing Brigham and UNM since these were my bookends. Just goes to show you how subjective the interview process is.
My ranking were largely about the people I met since I beleive you can get the training you want out of any of these programs. Looks like Cincy can lose the pager system next year and just have the interns communicate through SDN. Best of luck everyone.
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1. Palmetto--wow! Awesome PD and residents. They'll help you develop just about any interest you have. strong U/S, focus on the business side of medicine, 3 elective months. Not many residencies at the hospital = hopefully not practicing as much consult medicine as elsewhere. You other people need to stop ranking them #1 so I get a spot! the best all-around program for me (and my spouse). Columbia is a terrific southern city--affordable, sunny, close to the beach, close to family, lots of golf!
2. MCG--excellent program that you don't hear much about. Some terrific people here! Lots of exciting stuff going on. Location is the only negative for most people, but it happens to work quite well for me. Added bonus--event medicine at the Masters!!! You simply can't beat that.
3. VCU--my surprise of the season. Awesome residents, some of the best PD/asst PD's I met. Richmond is just OK.
4. Duke--wanted to like it more (mainly d/t ideal location) and for a while it was #2. i just couldn't talk myself into top 3 for Duke, though. If they allowed outside moonlighting and electives, it would have been high on the list.
5. UTSW--way county feeling, and it felt like EM was just not established as a distinct specialty there. Still, I liked it, and loved Dallas!
6. OSU--were it exclusively my choice, this would have been number one. It got a location semi-veto from my born-and-raised in the South spouse. Columbus is a great city, but Snow=Veto My wife has followed me to some pretty crappy "cities" during the past four or five years, so she deserves this veto power and more!
7. Texas A&M--nice people, awesome new ED. Temple was just too small for me to rank it higher, and I have zero ties to the area.
8. Metrohealth--strong program, indigent population at Metro and super-academics at the Cleveland Clinic. Cleveland is really the only negative for me.
9. Akron General--awesome perks and benefits, but PERSONALLY I didn't see any other positives.
I had more interviews scheduled, but I just got tired of interviewing.
Hope you all get what you want!
the best all-around program for me (and my spouse). Columbia is a terrific southern city--affordable, sunny, close to the beach, close to family, lots of golf!2. MCG--excellent program that you don't hear much about. Some terrific people here! Lots of exciting stuff going on. Location is the only negative for most people, but it happens to work quite well for me. Added bonus--event medicine at the Masters!!! You simply can't beat that.
3. VCU--my surprise of the season. Awesome residents, some of the best PD/asst PD's I met. Richmond is just OK.
4. Duke--wanted to like it more (mainly d/t ideal location) and for a while it was #2. i just couldn't talk myself into top 3 for Duke, though. If they allowed outside moonlighting and electives, it would have been high on the list.
5. UTSW--way county feeling, and it felt like EM was just not established as a distinct specialty there. Still, I liked it, and loved Dallas!
6. OSU--were it exclusively my choice, this would have been number one. It got a location semi-veto from my born-and-raised in the South spouse. Columbus is a great city, but Snow=Veto My wife has followed me to some pretty crappy "cities" during the past four or five years, so she deserves this veto power and more!
7. Texas A&M--nice people, awesome new ED. Temple was just too small for me to rank it higher, and I have zero ties to the area.
8. Metrohealth--strong program, indigent population at Metro and super-academics at the Cleveland Clinic. Cleveland is really the only negative for me.
9. Akron General--awesome perks and benefits, but PERSONALLY I didn't see any other positives.
I had more interviews scheduled, but I just got tired of interviewing.
Hope you all get what you want!
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1. Indiana: Absolutely love this program. Great faculty and residents. I really like the integrated flight and mass gathering medicine that they do with the speedway. Recently switched the Children's hospital over to EM-run so their peds experience should greatly improve. Also adding a new US-trained fellow to their staff. All in all, this was just a great fit.
2. Carolinas: Could just as well have been my #1. Great facilities, faculty and residents. PD was especially cool. Weather was great and Charlotte seems like a really great city as well. I guess in the end, location was a bit of a player as I'm from Michigan and my family is all here so maybe I'm just a bit scared to abandon the Midwest
3. Case Western/Metrohealth: Also a great program. Midwest was a plus. Cleveland seemed pretty nice considering i'm in D-town right now. I really liked the idea of the different populations at Metro and Cleveland Clinic, very reminiscent of Methodist and Wishard in Indy.
4. Christ: Also a great program. High volume with very high acuity. Harwood won PD of the year in 2007 and the rest of their faculty seemed great too. Great US exposure with Lambert as the head.
5. Henry Ford: I did a month here and really liked it. We have a very sick population here in Detroit and they see a ton of them. Lots of good research here especially in sepsis and CVA. Negatives were lack of good peds exposure, mediocre off-service rotations and mediocre US training. In the end, I think I'm just ready to get out of Detroit.
6. Hennepin: Probably my biggest disappointment of the trail. For all of the hype they seem to get, I just wasn't that impressed. Maybe just a bit too surgery based for me. Also not thrilled with moving to Minnesota despite Minneapolis being a pretty cool city.
7. Grand Rapids: Great program but the city is just too small for me. If I could move a program like this into Detroit, I would probably stay in a second.
8. DMC/Sinai Grace: I also did a month here and though I did like it, there were just too many negatives to move it up. Very little research, US or peds. Lots of gun and knife but only community experience is at Huron Valley which is 30 minutes away.
Only program I didn't rank was UIC. I didn't really like the fact that you had to split your time between 3 different EDs. I also didn't like that they have to farm you out (to Christ no less) to get your peds and trauma experience.
2. Carolinas: Could just as well have been my #1. Great facilities, faculty and residents. PD was especially cool. Weather was great and Charlotte seems like a really great city as well. I guess in the end, location was a bit of a player as I'm from Michigan and my family is all here so maybe I'm just a bit scared to abandon the Midwest
3. Case Western/Metrohealth: Also a great program. Midwest was a plus. Cleveland seemed pretty nice considering i'm in D-town right now. I really liked the idea of the different populations at Metro and Cleveland Clinic, very reminiscent of Methodist and Wishard in Indy.
4. Christ: Also a great program. High volume with very high acuity. Harwood won PD of the year in 2007 and the rest of their faculty seemed great too. Great US exposure with Lambert as the head.
5. Henry Ford: I did a month here and really liked it. We have a very sick population here in Detroit and they see a ton of them. Lots of good research here especially in sepsis and CVA. Negatives were lack of good peds exposure, mediocre off-service rotations and mediocre US training. In the end, I think I'm just ready to get out of Detroit.
6. Hennepin: Probably my biggest disappointment of the trail. For all of the hype they seem to get, I just wasn't that impressed. Maybe just a bit too surgery based for me. Also not thrilled with moving to Minnesota despite Minneapolis being a pretty cool city.
7. Grand Rapids: Great program but the city is just too small for me. If I could move a program like this into Detroit, I would probably stay in a second.
8. DMC/Sinai Grace: I also did a month here and though I did like it, there were just too many negatives to move it up. Very little research, US or peds. Lots of gun and knife but only community experience is at Huron Valley which is 30 minutes away.
Only program I didn't rank was UIC. I didn't really like the fact that you had to split your time between 3 different EDs. I also didn't like that they have to farm you out (to Christ no less) to get your peds and trauma experience.
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1. Palmetto--wow! Awesome PD and residents. They'll help you develop just about any interest you have. strong U/S, focus on the business side of medicine, 3 elective months. Not many residencies at the hospital = hopefully not practicing as much consult medicine as elsewhere. You other people need to stop ranking them #1 so I get a spot!
May we all end up there. If not then I challenge you and everyone else to a duel over the spot(s).
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Looks like the same needs to be said about us Indy #1ers! I just LOVE choosing the popular ones....
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- Feb 21, 2007
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Hi everyone. I have enjoyed reading your residency reviews. Because there are a lot of awesome EM residencies out there, my rank list primarily came down to location and that elusive feeling of fit. So if the residents were standoffish or the interviewers acted like gatekeepers, went down the list.... because I hate to think how they really are when not on their best behaviors. So without further ado....
1. Univ of Chicago. + Great PD. Cool residents. Cool city. -Cold and windy
2. Hopkins. Liked it. Got that fit feel.
3. Maryland. Only drawback was an annoying intern kept insisting throughout the dinner that we interviewees sucked because we were interviewing in late Dec. After mentioning to him that interviews lasted into January and him still insisting had to wonder what the hell was his problem and the program's for accepting him. Also only dinner where more than a few residents bashed other EM programs. Not very classy. But awesome program and PD. Shock Trauma. Nice curriculum with evidence based articles instead of books
4. Jefferson. Prolly should have been lower honestly.
5. Cincy. Prolly the best EM training pgrm out there as evidenced by the number of reviewers willing to sell a kidney for admission and they really really know how to sell themselves.4 years seem more than worth it. Flying seems integral and a chance to really intervene. Was underwhelmed with the residents. Very confident but standoffish and i could see why some ppl give them the arrogant tag.
6. GW. good program but the 4 yrs didn't seem as justifiable as cincy. Half year of medicine floor work still doesn't make sense but i guess they didn't want to change to a 3 yr program. Also there was one interviewer that was very abrasive and Mrs. gatekeeper. The UFlorida/EMS attg made up for it though.
7. SUNY Downstate. Great training. Cool residents. Poor ancillary services. I kept picturing myself living in a box for 2000/mo and just wasn't happy. I know I will be poor in residency but don't want to be that poor.
8. Wash U. Good PD. Not sure about St. Louie. Not sure about 4 yrs in St. Louie.
9. Cook County. Great PD. Didn't seem like much teaching with the strong clinical training. Poor ancillary staff. 2-4 year was worrisome especially with a number of residents saying their prelim year was a repeat of MSIV where they got to chill and had a nice year hanging out before starting. Hmmm sounded more like a $100,000 mistake to me.
DNR: Christiana. Location. Location. Location. Although reportedly great training program couldn't see myself being happy there in the middle of nowhere with most ppl married.
1. Univ of Chicago. + Great PD. Cool residents. Cool city. -Cold and windy
2. Hopkins. Liked it. Got that fit feel.
3. Maryland. Only drawback was an annoying intern kept insisting throughout the dinner that we interviewees sucked because we were interviewing in late Dec. After mentioning to him that interviews lasted into January and him still insisting had to wonder what the hell was his problem and the program's for accepting him. Also only dinner where more than a few residents bashed other EM programs. Not very classy. But awesome program and PD. Shock Trauma. Nice curriculum with evidence based articles instead of books
4. Jefferson. Prolly should have been lower honestly.
5. Cincy. Prolly the best EM training pgrm out there as evidenced by the number of reviewers willing to sell a kidney for admission and they really really know how to sell themselves.4 years seem more than worth it. Flying seems integral and a chance to really intervene. Was underwhelmed with the residents. Very confident but standoffish and i could see why some ppl give them the arrogant tag.
6. GW. good program but the 4 yrs didn't seem as justifiable as cincy. Half year of medicine floor work still doesn't make sense but i guess they didn't want to change to a 3 yr program. Also there was one interviewer that was very abrasive and Mrs. gatekeeper. The UFlorida/EMS attg made up for it though.
7. SUNY Downstate. Great training. Cool residents. Poor ancillary services. I kept picturing myself living in a box for 2000/mo and just wasn't happy. I know I will be poor in residency but don't want to be that poor.
8. Wash U. Good PD. Not sure about St. Louie. Not sure about 4 yrs in St. Louie.
9. Cook County. Great PD. Didn't seem like much teaching with the strong clinical training. Poor ancillary staff. 2-4 year was worrisome especially with a number of residents saying their prelim year was a repeat of MSIV where they got to chill and had a nice year hanging out before starting. Hmmm sounded more like a $100,000 mistake to me.
DNR: Christiana. Location. Location. Location. Although reportedly great training program couldn't see myself being happy there in the middle of nowhere with most ppl married.
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Here's my contribution. Later I will add + and - to each/mini-reviews. I am currently on a super fast drive across the country for a March 1 rotation (but need to be there by Feb 25) and need to spend time now driving or sleeping...but reviews will come later with rational for ranking order.
Good luck all!
ncc
*Deleted because I have to apply again (didn't match) and don't want me old rol out there for anyone to see next year. Crazy - I know - but true.*
ncc
Good luck all!
ncc
*Deleted because I have to apply again (didn't match) and don't want me old rol out there for anyone to see next year. Crazy - I know - but true.*
ncc
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don't really know why my list is in reverse order...I am a copycat...but it is not really like there is a drumroll with my rank list
maybe it is the celebratory drinks I just tossed back
ncc
maybe it is the celebratory drinks I just tossed back
ncc
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.
I just got back from my 4th year class' self-organized "It's Out Of Our Hands" Party (which featured a New Years-esque countdown and toast at 9pm as our rank lists became unalterable) and I figured I'd add my list.
My rank list was plagued by the difficult task of parsing out how to rank my choices for EM/IM vs. categorical EM considering I really prefer to do EM/IM but there were several EM/IM programs I didn't like or felt were somewhat weaker from the EM or IM sides than my favorite straight EM programs. And yes, I did end up ranking every program I interviewed at because I ultimately decided I'd rather not scramble (and I really doubt I'll actually end up having to go down to #19). So without further ado:
1.) University of Maryland EM/IM
2.) University of Illinois-Chicago EM/IM
3.) Hennepin County Medical Center EM/IM
4.) USC+LAC
5.) Cook County
6.) University of Maryland EM
7.) Boston Medical Center
8.) Chistiana Care EM/IM
9.) Temple
10.) University of Pennsylvania
11.) Wash U
12.) Long Island Jewish EM/IM
13.) Thomas Jefferson
14.) University of Rochester
15.) East Carolina University EM/IM
16.) SUNY-Downstate/King's County EM/IM
17.) Alleghany General EM/IM
18.) SUNY-Downstate/King's County EM
19.) Jacobi/Montefiore
Maybe I'll get to feeling industrious and will go back and add my impressions for each of the places on my list, but for now this will do. Any questions feel free to PM me.
My rank list was plagued by the difficult task of parsing out how to rank my choices for EM/IM vs. categorical EM considering I really prefer to do EM/IM but there were several EM/IM programs I didn't like or felt were somewhat weaker from the EM or IM sides than my favorite straight EM programs. And yes, I did end up ranking every program I interviewed at because I ultimately decided I'd rather not scramble (and I really doubt I'll actually end up having to go down to #19). So without further ado:
1.) University of Maryland EM/IM
2.) University of Illinois-Chicago EM/IM
3.) Hennepin County Medical Center EM/IM
4.) USC+LAC
5.) Cook County
6.) University of Maryland EM
7.) Boston Medical Center
8.) Chistiana Care EM/IM
9.) Temple
10.) University of Pennsylvania
11.) Wash U
12.) Long Island Jewish EM/IM
13.) Thomas Jefferson
14.) University of Rochester
15.) East Carolina University EM/IM
16.) SUNY-Downstate/King's County EM/IM
17.) Alleghany General EM/IM
18.) SUNY-Downstate/King's County EM
19.) Jacobi/Montefiore
Maybe I'll get to feeling industrious and will go back and add my impressions for each of the places on my list, but for now this will do. Any questions feel free to PM me.
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2005
- Messages
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1. Cinci
2. Indy
3. MCW
4. U Arizona
5. Pitt
6. U. Chicago
7. UC Davis
8. U. Mass
9. U Michigan
10 BIDMC
11. MGH/BWH
12. CWR/Metro
13. Christ
14. Maricopa
15. UIC
2. Indy
3. MCW
4. U Arizona
5. Pitt
6. U. Chicago
7. UC Davis
8. U. Mass
9. U Michigan
10 BIDMC
11. MGH/BWH
12. CWR/Metro
13. Christ
14. Maricopa
15. UIC
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2002
- Messages
- 1,332
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1. Cook County. I loved the dedecated residents. I will learn a bunch. And since I am laready a resident - I won't ever have to be an intern again (if I match there). Dr. Bowman also seems like a really nice guy.
2. Mayo. What can I say? Their new sim center was very impressive. Residents were surprisingly laid back, considering is "the best hospital" in the world. Great PD. Obviously, you can go anywhere after you graduate from Mayo.
3. U Iowa. Up and coming little program. Very social type residents. Most are a little older, like myself, having done previous residencies. Great PD, who is IM/EM trained (yay!). I love Iowa City, too. They are building a new ER also; their current one is a little small.
4. U Wisconsin. I think they will be a sweet program in a few years. The helicopters make you drool when you see them. Of course, they already filled most their spots with prematches this year, so ranking them is almost futile. Madison is one of the coolest cities I have even visited.
5. U Nebraska. I Probably the best "feel" I got from anywhere. Really relaxed, happy residents. Omaha is great for a family. It's a little far away from where I am now; otherwise it would have been #1.
6. Henry Ford IM/EM. This would also have been a top choice if not for location. I liked both PDs. The ER seemed a little run down but, again, a busy program like that would be perfect for someone who already has done some residency.
7. Henry Ford EM. Same reasons. Dr Lewandowski was probably the most impressive PD I met anywhere, although they were all good.
8. UMKC. Again, location. Yes, all my programs are in a tight little cluster but even within that cluster, I have location preferences. I thought the program and some of the residents were very cool. The guy who gave us the tour was extremely arrogant, however, which was a slight turnoff. The PD, Dr. Sullivan, seemed honest and straightforward.
9. Wright State. I'll be honest. I only applied to 20 programs at first and didn't (obvisouly) get interviews from everywhere, so I added the Ohio programs to make it to the magic number (10). It's too far away to really consider for me but I have to admit I was very positively surprised by the program and the residents. They rotate at three hospitals. I shadowed in the ER after my interview and got a great feeling from the atmosphere there. I didn't meet the PD that day. I would love to match there. Location is the only drawback.
10. Grand Rapids. Had a great interviex day and was really impressed. The residents were very friendly. There was an "athletic" type of feel there, something I haven't found as pronounced elsewhere. I am (obvisously from my screen name and avatar) BIG into endurance and other sports and these guys/gals seemed to share that. But something went awry a little bit. The PD and associate PD kept saying that I would fit in great and heavily hinted that they would like to sign me outside the match ("you have the advantage of being able to sign outside the match"... "We are very impressed with your scores, achievements, research, please consider us". "we have signed one applicant already who is a current surgery resident"). It all seemed like the dance of the seven veils to me. They had even called one of my attendings, who had given me an LOR, about the possible pre-match. So, impressed as I was, I wrote them back, telling them I would very much like to sign up. But something must have changed because they suddenly weren't interested in the pre-match anymore. Dang, I felt that made me look stupid. I wouldn't have written to them unless I was 99% sure that's what they wanted.
Again, Grand Rapids is a great program and does not deserve to be ranked last. But I am a really strong resident/applicant and I just know I would always feel weird knowing I wasn't really top tier material in their eyes. I do wonder what happened to make them change their minds like that.
So that's my list. I noticed I have several programs on there that no one else has. Except Cook County, which is always popular.
Now it's 3 weeks of diarrhea and counting down the days.
The best of luck to everyone.
BK
2. Mayo. What can I say? Their new sim center was very impressive. Residents were surprisingly laid back, considering is "the best hospital" in the world. Great PD. Obviously, you can go anywhere after you graduate from Mayo.
3. U Iowa. Up and coming little program. Very social type residents. Most are a little older, like myself, having done previous residencies. Great PD, who is IM/EM trained (yay!). I love Iowa City, too. They are building a new ER also; their current one is a little small.
4. U Wisconsin. I think they will be a sweet program in a few years. The helicopters make you drool when you see them. Of course, they already filled most their spots with prematches this year, so ranking them is almost futile. Madison is one of the coolest cities I have even visited.
5. U Nebraska. I Probably the best "feel" I got from anywhere. Really relaxed, happy residents. Omaha is great for a family. It's a little far away from where I am now; otherwise it would have been #1.
6. Henry Ford IM/EM. This would also have been a top choice if not for location. I liked both PDs. The ER seemed a little run down but, again, a busy program like that would be perfect for someone who already has done some residency.
7. Henry Ford EM. Same reasons. Dr Lewandowski was probably the most impressive PD I met anywhere, although they were all good.
8. UMKC. Again, location. Yes, all my programs are in a tight little cluster but even within that cluster, I have location preferences. I thought the program and some of the residents were very cool. The guy who gave us the tour was extremely arrogant, however, which was a slight turnoff. The PD, Dr. Sullivan, seemed honest and straightforward.
9. Wright State. I'll be honest. I only applied to 20 programs at first and didn't (obvisouly) get interviews from everywhere, so I added the Ohio programs to make it to the magic number (10). It's too far away to really consider for me but I have to admit I was very positively surprised by the program and the residents. They rotate at three hospitals. I shadowed in the ER after my interview and got a great feeling from the atmosphere there. I didn't meet the PD that day. I would love to match there. Location is the only drawback.
10. Grand Rapids. Had a great interviex day and was really impressed. The residents were very friendly. There was an "athletic" type of feel there, something I haven't found as pronounced elsewhere. I am (obvisously from my screen name and avatar) BIG into endurance and other sports and these guys/gals seemed to share that. But something went awry a little bit. The PD and associate PD kept saying that I would fit in great and heavily hinted that they would like to sign me outside the match ("you have the advantage of being able to sign outside the match"... "We are very impressed with your scores, achievements, research, please consider us". "we have signed one applicant already who is a current surgery resident"). It all seemed like the dance of the seven veils to me. They had even called one of my attendings, who had given me an LOR, about the possible pre-match. So, impressed as I was, I wrote them back, telling them I would very much like to sign up. But something must have changed because they suddenly weren't interested in the pre-match anymore. Dang, I felt that made me look stupid. I wouldn't have written to them unless I was 99% sure that's what they wanted.
Again, Grand Rapids is a great program and does not deserve to be ranked last. But I am a really strong resident/applicant and I just know I would always feel weird knowing I wasn't really top tier material in their eyes. I do wonder what happened to make them change their minds like that.
So that's my list. I noticed I have several programs on there that no one else has. Except Cook County, which is always popular.
Now it's 3 weeks of diarrhea and counting down the days.
The best of luck to everyone.
BK
- Joined
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1. USC/LA County
2. Cook County
3. SUNY Downstate/Kings County
4. Emory
5. Temple
6. Univ of Chicago
7. Einstein/Jacobi
8. UT Southwestern/Parkland
9. Univ of FL - Jacksonville
10. Univ of Maryland
Did not rank: UT-Houston, Drexel
Any future applicants feel free to PM me for info regarding any programs i went to
1. USC - Was not really looking at West Coast programs but im glad I went because I think this program is amazing.
+pt popluation --> high acuity, bizare and advanced pathology, tons of procedures, lots of trauma and airway
+resident autonomy -- this is stressed by the PD... you will learn to make decisions on your own perhaps even before you are completely 100% ready but you will learn how to manage patients solo and that is going to translate into being a stud upon residency completion. A faculty member said the only programs that gave residents this much autonomy is Charity(RIP) and Jacksonville.
+/- 2-4 format is annoying but is made up for the fact that there are as many ED months in yrs 2,3,4 as many as most 1-4 year programs (~26 4-week blocks at USC/LAC and 2 4-week blocks in commmunity)... all you really do is EM once you start besides MICU, PICU, 2 community EM rotations and 2 peds ED months.
+ run hospital codes and are responsible for difficult airways in the hospital (not anesthesia)
+LA is nice (subjective)
+Have faculty all over... you could get a job anywhere you wanted after done. Old and respected program.
-2-4 format: not getting to do EM for another year does kind of suck when you are an MS4... ok so this is a huge negative oh well i think its worth it. The program has been through all formats 1-3, 1-4, and 2-4. A faculty member told me he thought it was the best at 1-4 but financial issues force the program to be 2-4... they are very anti-3 year program here.
-1/2 pt's speak spanish -- a resident mentioned he would be learning more if he spoke spanish
-LA is VERY expensive however you can live where USC students live (Al Hambre, South Pasadena) for cheaper and drive a short ways into LA. Salary is not really adjusted like it is for East Coast programs, so you will be poor during residency.
-Maybe too much trauma -- I don't know i didnt rotate but I would think it gets repetitive after a while... oh well better too much than not enough IMO. But the residents run it here on a daily basis. Tons of intubations and chest tubes.
-Peds -- Major drawback in my book. They get 2 dedicated peds ED months and thats all she wrote (besides for 5 weeks of PICU).Not very strong... however there are 10 weeks of elective time and if I still feel this way I can just use elective months. I dont know why this has not been adressed, its seems that every other aspect of the program is strong.
-Transitioning to new hospital -- maybe it will be painless (Jacobi) or painful (Kings)... either way im confident that the same administration who put together this program at the old LAC can put together something equal or better at the new hospital
-?Malignacy -- I didnt think so when I went but apparently it has this rep according to some
2. Cook County -- Mirrors USC/LAC but in Chicago and ED setup is a little different
+'s -- same as USC
+patient population -- pretty much the same except African Americans are the majority as opposed to Hispanic patients at USC. Lots of very sick people in their high acuity zone (red). Lots of less sick people in their lower acuity zone (blue). Lots of healthy people in the fast track (green) but you dont staff fast track past pgy-2/EM-1 unless you are moonlighting in it.
+autonomy -- cheif resident who gave us tour said she runs things w/ or w/o attending but one is around if you need them
+procedures
+by far the strongest dept in hospital - dont need to call anybody, consultants rarely used, if pt is in the ED then EM does it
+get to tell family and friends this is where the TV show is LOL
+Chicago is really nice (if it wasnt cold, everybody would live here -- its like NY but not everybody is always in your damn face all the time) and affordable compared to both coasts.
+20 x 8 hr shifts a month which are really 8-8.5 as opposed to 10 hrs. Cheif, who was brutaly honest during the tour, told us this and I believe her. This leaves a lot of room to read and play in Chi
+Conference -- not 5 hrs in one day like all the other programs, spread out throughout the week so people like me with low attention spans can actualy concentrate from beginning to end. 100% attendence is expected and required.
+Have faculty all over including in CA programs (i think this says a lot)... you could get a job anywhere you wanted after done academic or private.
-trauma is not integrated -- you dont do any trauma unless you are on trauma. I know this will not impact training much and you are gonna be great regardless since trauma is cookbook, but I just think it would be fun to have trauma come in while seeing patients... but maybe im just naive.
-3.5 trauma months where you have to be a part of the 'trauma' team. This means lots of call and managing trauma pts after the actual resucitation... would be so much nicer if it was integrated and you could just resucitate/stabilize and then call surgery for the rest of the boring course like USC or Kings. You get some more ICU experience and procedures however as there is a trauma ICU that is part of the unit and the trauma team is responsible for it.
-not as many ED months as a 1-4 program (18 at Cook ED, 3.5 trauma, 2.5 community ED) although all other rotations are EM-related (EM ortho, tox, ultrasound, etc)
-Peds -- not as strong... in fact the Cook County peds ED is so weak they are going to phase it out of the curriculum according to the cheif resident. Interns do 2 months during pgy-2 and thats it. However, by the time it phases out I probably will have already done it and so the positive change wont effect me. Good news is they send you to very good peds hospitals for a month in each PGY-3 and PGY-4 year.
-A faculty member said there were plans of changing from 2-4 --> 1-4 because, unlike USC, they can swing it with current funding. Apparently they think they are loosing quality applicants due to there current format (with competition like U of Chi, UIC, Christ, etc i can see why this would happen). It would suck if this changed for the next class because then there would be 2 intern classes (my class of 2007 and the following in 2008) in the ED and that would make things difficult i think. Not to mention i would feel like i got shafted. Almost made up for by the fact that there is an improved chance of you matching to their PGY-1 which has no overnight call and 3-4 months of free (any dept) electives... however I would easily trade that in for 4-6 months of ED time during my intern year.
-Lack of Flow through the dept -- major drawback IMO. Although this is offset by the fact you will get to manage a lot of ICU type pts in the ED. You will float swans routinely. However, when coming on the shift you can get anywhere from 15-40 sign outs. This cuts back on #'s of new patients you will see per shift. However, I think Cook grads can probably handle shear volume better than anyone, and they get a lot of icu type experience in the ED.
-Primary care -- more so than other programs as told to me by other Chi medical students i met throughout the trail who had rotated at Cook, but thats what you get at a high volume county. Not a big deal to me... will get good and very fast at this but I thought it was worth mentioning. Apparently there was a fast track set up which is not staffed by EM to handle the problem, but the patient's adapted and have found ways to get passed it ("chest pain").
+/- Graduated responsibility -- Before seeing the sickest patients and managing resucitations, you have to complete an intern year and most of PGY-2 until they give you a 'resucitation class' before they let you touch the extremely sick patients. Where I rotated this was generaly started in PGY-2 year or even late PGY-1. I think at U of Chi you start seeing the high acuity from day 1. I think the way Jacobi does graduated responsibility is the best way (they do claim to have founded the principle) -- they have PGY-1 and PGY-2 take the sickest patients with a lot of oversight from the seniors and the farther in to residency you go the more of an administrative or teaching role you take... not the other way around. The red area is the area with the really sick/icu type patients, 80% of your shifts are here as pgy-3. Fast track (green) you run as a pgy-2 with most of your shifts in blue and green zones... I think there philosophy is learn volume management during pgy-2 and high acuity complex/resuc pts in pgy-3 and run the whole show pgy-4. Overal i dont think this is a big deal with regards to actual training and kind of like the non-integrated trauma thing, its just a matter of preference.
3. SUNY Downstate/Brooklyn AKA Kings County - similar to my top 2. Would be very happy in any of these as they are almost interchangeable
+'s -- same as USC, Cook
+1-4 format (no prelim/transitional year!) with lots of ED months (26.5 months total in the ED: 15.5 at Kings County, 5.5 at UHB right across the street which is pretty much like KC w/o the trauma and more time for thinking and teaching about patients, 2 months at OLM a community hospital, 2.5 months at a Staten Island University ED, 1 month at Brookdale also a knife and gun club close to KC and the second Level 1 (out of 3 but KC and Brookdale get the majority) in Brooklyn.
+autonomy
+trauma and procedures
+Brooklyn is nice (subjective)
+Have faculty all over including in CA programs (i think this says a lot)... you could get a job anywhere you wanted after done. Respected program even though not very old.
+shift breakdown: KC has 3 areas residents staff- main ED, critical care (trauma and unstable pts), peds. During year one and 2 you do peds during separate months and then about 1/5 or 1/4 peds shifts per month year 3 and 4. During year 1 and 2 you do 6-7/18 shifts in the critical care area with the rest in the main ED, and about 1/3 shifts in this area in year 3 and 4. You get exposure to the sickest pts from year 1.
-Too many rotations away from Kings County:
residents said they didnt like OLM too much but its only 2 months out of 4 years right now and they are thinking about dropping it altogether... Staten Island, while being a good experience due to high acuity with you being the only resident there thus getting all the cool stuff, takes 1.5-2 hrs to get to if you dont have a car (combo of bus/train/fairy? i dunno its complicated). This is kind of a big deal because even though you might have a car before moving to brooklyn I hear its very hard to keep due to parking issues so most people dont take their cars. There are a total of 5.5 months worth of rotations at Staten Island so commuting will suck indeed.
I don't know why they have to go away when they have Kings County and UHB at home... i think it is to satisfy contract issues because they pay part of your salary. If it wasn't for this I may have ranked King's higher but I don't know because...
-Worst ancillary services imaginable... do all your own blood draws, transporting, hooking pts up to monitors etc. I will just get very fast and adept at this. IMO patient population and subsequent training makes up for all the hassles. This is a big drawback though when compared to other county programs with better ancillary services.
-Lots of off service rotations and since EM is probably the strongest program in the hospital I dont know how high quality these are. Others like the burn unit at Staten Island just dont seem very high yeild.
-Ive heard many grads say its the most dysfunctional ED on the planet... LOL well at least when your done you can run any third world ED, right?
-Move to the new hospital left a lot of unorganization and chaos which from what I understand has calmed down considerably. For example...
-Considerable amount of new ED is sectioned off as 'B' area... pts go here after admitted and is run by internal medicine (gasp!). Residents say this improves flow and was done because there weren't enough resident to cover the main ER... I have to wonder about this... major drawback to me. However after seeing Cook ED (almost zero flow) this may indeed be a positive... i guess I won't fully know unless I match here and find out for myself.
-I have a feeling the administration doesn't administrate as much as they should. Residents at dinner had complaints in this area. Among other things, residents said they are in charge of making their own schedules with respect to what area of the ED (fast track, peds, main, critical care, etc.) during the last 2 years.
-Brooklyn is VERY VERY expensive even with compensated salary (or in case of Kings, partialy compensated... interns make $48k from what I hear compared to 55+ at SLR, Jacobi and other some other NY programs) so you will either be poor in a nice neighborhood or live in the ghetto and watch your back (like me) but have some spending money but not really that much because you will still likely pay close to a thousand a month.
-No subsidised housing -- would be very nice to have but is understandably absent
-US -- just bought new machines but from what residents have said there is room for improvement as teaching is not where it should be in this area
-Peds -- not as strong... just avg
4. Emory -- would be as happy here as my top 3... could have ranked anywhere from 1-4 it was a last minute decision... end of the day I wanted to get out of the South and experience something different as I will more than likely be coming back to the South when I am done with residency. Atlanta is very similar to the city I grew up in and I want to see/live differently for a while.
+See above 3 programs -- acuity, pathology, procedures, autonomy etc
+Grady has virtualy no competition in Atlanta for patients. I think this is important after seeing what the effect of oversaturation can do to areas like Ny where there are like 500+ hospitals in the area. Grady never runs out of patients or gets slow it is always completely packed with pts on stretchers with endless trails of people 24 hours a day. Others might see this as a negative. You will never sit down on a shift here... awesome!
+multiple hospital system - county, university, private, low acuity peds, high acuity peds -- allows you to see/manage everything
+peds - amongst the top tier in peds ed training at the high acuity (Egelston) hospital.. residents are very good at peds after graduation
+Atlanta - nice city with lots to do... probably not as active as NY, LA, or Chi but right under there. Also pretty diverse. I was impressed.
+Cost of living - can't beat the cost of living here with regards to big cities. You could def afford to buy here
+Ancillary services are not the worst (nurses draw blood, etc but you may have to ask more than once and it may take a while) but the nurses/clerks were some of the worst (some mean, others lazy -- probably not intolerable but just the worst I had seen up to that point) I ever met (at Grady), but I did have an overabundance of night shifts so maybe that is where they put the social misfits (thats what somebody else told me, a friend I rotated with worked mostly days and had no problems).
+Strong off service rotations. Medicine and Surgery is strong at Emory but not in the ED. Great situation for the EM residents as they should get a great experience in all rotations.
+Access to Emory -- access to everything Emory University has. Nice.
+3 year program -- no prelim/transitional year... gee maybe I shoulda... nevermind too late now.
-Grady gets a lot of trauma, but trauma surgery is activated in all major traumas and they get the cool procedures (chest tubes, surg airways, thoracotomy, etc)... however im sure if you ask them you could get some while on shift. EM handles airway all the time though and runs the lower level trauma.
-Residents stay 1-2+ hours after shifts... so their advertised 10's are sometimes 12's and 8's can go to 11 but usualy more like 10. ~ 20 shifts/month along with extra things outside of work like computer quizes/modules or some other kind of busy work the residents were talking about ensures you will be spending a LOT of time doing EM which is not bad but we all want a life, dont we? I think second and third year, however, you get 2 weekends/month off because weekend shifts are still 12 hrs (which, again, go overtime). I would still go here in a hearbeat though. The work pays off. The senior residents were very good at what they did.
-With all the different hospitals you only get something like 13 months at Grady main ED throughout the 3 years, but the senior residents said it was more than enough.
-Primary care -- good thing there are lots of rotating students and off service residents... with a census approaching 200,000 you are going to get your fair share
-Driving to all the hospitals which are in different parts of Atlanta will take time
-Lack of money -- Its hard trying to find things when you need them, like a central line kit, or a nonrebreather mask, or an ultrasound machine that works lol... This was very frustrating. Again, this applies only to Grady but you are here most of the time. Emory and Crawford Long are very nice.
5. Temple -- IMO one of the best 'newish' program ('97 i think)... would love to match here as well. Administrative team including Dr. McNamara were very cool.
+ acuity, pathology, procedures (they get a lot-- gave actual numbers at interview)
+ A resident at Drexel compared one of the hospitals they worked at during PGY-2 year to Temple. They said it was there high-acuity hospital with the sickest patients and resembled Temple ED. Why would I only want 1 year to rotate there when I could be at Temple for 3? The ED was very active.
+ Philly seemed pretty cool, I would like to live there... an affordable east coast city, who woulda thought? With a lot of medical schools and colleges in the area im sure its a fun place.
+ some peds months at CHOP
+/- County like feel due to pt population, but in more of a controlled environment with a lot of one on one time with attendings --> more teaching, but less volume and autonomy than some of the places I ranked higher (IMO -- I only observed for a couple of hours so I could be wrong).
- Segregated trauma experience - They mention many times during the interview that Temple gets a LOT of penetrating trauma, but you don't really get to deal with it unless you are on trauma (one month/yr or something like that) or the trauma team gets swamped (when i asked residents how often that was i got conflicting answers)
- intern shift schedule -- i think they work like 6 days in a row before getting any time off... not a big deal but I just thought I would mention. Much better in the following years though.
+/- Only take 10 residents... I bet this program gets really competitive pretty soon. The 4-5 Philly students I talked to in the 3 days I spent there said they thought Temple was the best EM program in the city. (I spoke to students from Temple, Jeff, Drexel, and somewhere else I dont remeber).
6. U of Chi -- a great program where you will get great training but also have a nice life while doing it... you wont find me complaining if I matched here
+ sick patients -- i couldnt tell who were sicker either these or in the red zone at Cook, it was a close call. In contrast too Cook, not many patients who werent sick.
+ moonlighting after 1st ED month ensures you can/will/should have $$ during residency... basicaly you pull 1-2 extra shifts/month in the fast track with an attending on (forgot how much it pays but it was a good deal trust me) and then during 2nd yr and beyond you can do 2-3 international flights/yr that pay $1000 in addition to the fast track shifts if you want them. This is all optional but I don't know why you wouldnt take advantage of at least some of this.
+ shift schedule (8's) allows for time off in +Chicago
+ curriculum (rotation schedule) is probably the best I have seen in any program. All ICU and ED months guarantees everything is high yeild.
+ Peds experience is one of the best. Other Chicago programs send there residents here.
+ PD is a really nice guy and seems like a huge resident advocate... a shame hes leaving at the end of next year
+ Waterski is there he will make sure you have a good time when you're off
+/- flying -- seems like you spend a lot of time in the helicopter... the educational value of this has already been debated on the board and i'm not so convinced its worth all the time you spend doing it. Might learn more just seeing patients in the ED despite the helicopter's cool factor.
+/- County like feel due to pt population with lots of autonomy and w/o amny inefeciencies although ED is pretty small (i guess after seeing the Univ of Chi campus I was expecting the Hilton or something).
- biggest drawback for me was having to go to the private hospital for so many months... ~12 months at Univ of Chicago and ~7 at the private. This hospital is pretty far and I don't think you get nearly as much out of it as the main university ED.
- segregated trauma -- one month/yr at Gun&Knife club type ED where all you do is trauma. Main ED is not a level I for adults so no real trauma there and I dont think the private sees much either.
7. Jacobi -- wanted to rank this higher, but ended up not liking it as much as i thought i would after talking to people and interviewing. Still I think I would get excellent training and would be more than happy to match here.
+national name recognition --> job anywhere after residency
+pt population -- Not quite as crazy (acuity/pathology) in Jacobi as Kings, LAC, Cook, Grady, etc... but still up there. Very sick pts at Monte, though. Note that I didnt rotate here this is only after observing for about an hour or so each place.
+graduated responsibility - 1st and 2nd years see the sickest patients, 2nd and 3rd years do the resuc, 3rd and 4rth years do teaching, 4rth years do admin work... nice system
+Lots ED months in 1-4 format
+Resident comradere -- they really seemed to enjoy going to work at Jocobi together, really looked like a fun bunch of people to be around
+Trauma -- actualy completely 100% run there own trauma... Ive found some programs say this but the trauma team actualy comes down with ALL major traumas. At Jacobi they only come down when they are called.
+Bronx - People say there is nothing to do, but you can afford living here and can keep a car... ~45 min to Manhattan. Hospital is in a pretty nice neighborhood, better than the one I grew up in. I was surprised.
+Subsidized housing - large, adequate, near work, $700/month
+Peds - Monte peds again is great, but limited # of months there
-Lack of flow through dept -- pts sit there forever decreasing # of new pts seen per shift
-conference I attended was the worst I had been to but this was probably isolated and speaker dependent. Lots of emphasis on basic science. Again this is probably speaker dependent and I was in on the wrong day.
-People keep saying "the training at Monte is exceptional..." but you only do something like 20-30% of your training there. Very sick patients, but again limited access here. Most of the program is at Jacobi which is great, but just not the experience of Monte. Ive heard more than once that Monte > Jacobi.
-5 x 12 hr consecutive shifts/week for first 2 years. I didnt even ask if 12's were really 12's or 13-14's because I honestly didnt want to know. This is just ridiculous. If it was only intern year I would say suck it up but 2 straight years is going to take its toll. Combined with the fact that a rotator who I trust told me there isnt as much teaching there as there should be and residents are responsible to move the meat at Jacobi means that you will have to do a lot of self-studying. I want to work, but this is just too much IMO. The 5 days are consecutive and the last day is a night shift which means 1 of your 2 days off is a pseudo-day off.
-Resident who gave us a tour told us he came to Jacobi because it was "Jacobi" the place that everybody talked about along with Cinci and Indy. Later admitted program may be riding its past reputation along with Bellvue but not to the same extent (resident trashed Bellvue and later said Kings was dysfunctional but a good program... another resident later said the exact same thing)
-ancillary services -- draw your own blood and even push your own drugs on all patients
-Bronx - after seeing Manhattan and Brooklyn, it is a step down
8. UTSW -- would have considered more strongly but did not want to continue living in the South... just wanted to switch it up at this point in my life
+ county but more academic from what I can tell. Incredibly knowledgeable faculty teach more than at other places which have the volume of Parkland. There was some teaching on almost every patient.
+ peds -- probably the strongest or tied with Univ of Chi for the strongest peds out of places I went
+ lots of money for a county--> great ancillary services and no shortage of supplies and the ED is actualy very nice
+ really nice people -- faculty and residents
+ Dallas -- affordable city living
- surgery runs trauma with little input from EM although EM residents get airway all the time... PD likes it this way he says sick medicine > trauma and I kind of agree however it would be nice to have more trauma experience than 2 months as part of the surgery team. Not much penetrating either mostly blunt.
- Int Med has a whole team in the ED all the time seeing patients. There are 3 ED teams. One comprised of EM residents lead by a second year seeing not so acute patients, another comprised of EM residents lead by a third year seeing the sickest patients, and one team comprised of IM residents who see every third patient or something. However there is considerable overlap between the two EM teams. Not a neverending supply of patients like at Grady, but enough to go around.
- Residents didnt seem to have the same exorbiant amount of chest tubes, subclavians, etc as those in some of the other county programs I went to, but it was still enough. Tons of LP's, suturing, I&D, blocks though.
- Division of surgery as opposed to department although I am convinced this does not make much of a difference as EM is a division of Medicine at Univ of Chicago which is definitely a well established residency
- curriculum has only 2 adult ED months during pgy-1 with multiple rotations on medicine floors and even peds wards... somewhat made up by the fact that the last 2 years are almost exclusively EM but the pgy-1 year is as bad as a transitional or prelim year.
- very strong departments at UTSW, almost every residency program here is very good and EM is one of the newest so you might have a lot of people in the ED claiming to have authority over your patient... but you have excellent off service instructors and consultants.
9. Jacksonville -- would have ranked in top 3 but will not live in Jacksonville. Surprised as I did not hear a lot about this program before I rotated there. Very nice 3 yr county, like a smaller Grady. Senior residents were the sharpest bunch I met. If my mom got hurt and she had to be taken care of by residents, I would send her to these ppl. Drs. Morrissey, Godwin, and Caro (the administrative staff) are really cool as well and everyone is fun to be around. If you are looking for a county type program in a not so big city you need to check this place out.
+ pt population --> acuity, pathology
+ procedures -- an intern told me they had like 1000+ procedures already.
+ autonomy -- it is the senior resident's ED... faculty are always there and know whats going on but only step in if they think something is wrong
+ conferences -- lots of hands on and simulator use at almost every conference
+ trauma -- lots of it. Technicaly surgery runs it MWF and ED TeThSa or something like that but the way it really works is a trauma comes in and then they have to go to the OR so the EM residents end up running most of it until the trauma team comes back and takes another one... not a lot of penetrating though
+ run hospital codes and responsible for difficult airways in the hospital (not anesthesia)
+ lots of money for a county--> great ancillary services and no shortage of supplies although the main ED is not very nice looking and is small/cramped
- location -- if you want to live in a big city this is not the place for you... if you are married or enjoy living in a big town or by the beach you should go here.
- one isolated month in resuc/trauma zone of ED (pgy-2) and then only ~3-4 shifts there/month... this area is awesome but very limited time there... 1/2 of the rest of shifts are in fast track doing mainly primary care
- you will not have a life intern year because you will be at work... + however 2nd yr is ~45 hrs and 3rd year is something like high 30's when residents moonlight$$ a lot
10. Univ of Maryland -- would have considered more strongly but I didn't want to live in Baltimore. Main ED was very similar to Temple though. I think it would be a great place to do residency and you would come out very well trained. Even if I mathced here at the program I ranked last I would be happy and confident I would receive excellent training. This was strictly a location issue. edit: I knew Baltimore was close to DC but I didn't know it was w/i a half hour... I prob should have ranked much higher.
+ conference was the best I had ever attended
+ academic curriculum is based on journal articles not books. I bet every program would do this if they could put in the time. I really think this is the best academic curriculum to learn from. Best i have seen at least.
+ sick patients
+/- County like feel due to pt population (see Temple)
- segregated trauma even though it's 4 months at the famous Shock Trama (i didnt see what the big deal was it just looked like a regular trauma unit with like 8 or 10 rooms instead of 4 or 5)... but no doubt you will get world class trauma instruction the months you are there. But you will have to wear gay pink scrubs with oversized baby blue booties. It kind of takes all the hardcoreness away from 'shock trauma' dont you think?
- having to rotate through the VA hospital for 3-4 months -- i dont see what this adds when Univ of MD ED is such a great experience.
I did not rank:
UT Houston -- 40% of shifts are trauma... i just think that is too much and you dont do anything else but trauma on these shifts. You will probably be trauma expert by end of year 1. I think this has to do with the fact that Houston only has two level 1's. You should see the helicopter pad, its ridiculous. There are like 5 helicopters coming in bringing trauma. If you want to spend 1/2 your residency doing trauma, check this place out, but I think they are just farming you out as labor. Technicaly surgery runs it, but the residents said there are no problems and they have a great relationship with surgery, I believe them.
Drexel -- The ICU experience is unique. A team of EM residents run a private ICU for something like 6 months throughout 3 years. This is the reason I wanted to check this place out. I wish more programs had something like this. There curriculum is also great, only ICU and ED months very similar to Univ of Chi. The main ED left something to be desired, however. As I mentioned a resident I met said during second year you rotate through a high acuity ED that was similar to Temple's main ED. Main ED just seemed very average. More like a place you would work than a place you would train. Didn't think I would get to see the things I would and train to the degree as the other places I went.
2. Cook County
3. SUNY Downstate/Kings County
4. Emory
5. Temple
6. Univ of Chicago
7. Einstein/Jacobi
8. UT Southwestern/Parkland
9. Univ of FL - Jacksonville
10. Univ of Maryland
Did not rank: UT-Houston, Drexel
Any future applicants feel free to PM me for info regarding any programs i went to
1. USC - Was not really looking at West Coast programs but im glad I went because I think this program is amazing.
+pt popluation --> high acuity, bizare and advanced pathology, tons of procedures, lots of trauma and airway
+resident autonomy -- this is stressed by the PD... you will learn to make decisions on your own perhaps even before you are completely 100% ready but you will learn how to manage patients solo and that is going to translate into being a stud upon residency completion. A faculty member said the only programs that gave residents this much autonomy is Charity(RIP) and Jacksonville.
+/- 2-4 format is annoying but is made up for the fact that there are as many ED months in yrs 2,3,4 as many as most 1-4 year programs (~26 4-week blocks at USC/LAC and 2 4-week blocks in commmunity)... all you really do is EM once you start besides MICU, PICU, 2 community EM rotations and 2 peds ED months.
+ run hospital codes and are responsible for difficult airways in the hospital (not anesthesia)
+LA is nice (subjective)
+Have faculty all over... you could get a job anywhere you wanted after done. Old and respected program.
-2-4 format: not getting to do EM for another year does kind of suck when you are an MS4... ok so this is a huge negative oh well i think its worth it. The program has been through all formats 1-3, 1-4, and 2-4. A faculty member told me he thought it was the best at 1-4 but financial issues force the program to be 2-4... they are very anti-3 year program here.
-1/2 pt's speak spanish -- a resident mentioned he would be learning more if he spoke spanish
-LA is VERY expensive however you can live where USC students live (Al Hambre, South Pasadena) for cheaper and drive a short ways into LA. Salary is not really adjusted like it is for East Coast programs, so you will be poor during residency.
-Maybe too much trauma -- I don't know i didnt rotate but I would think it gets repetitive after a while... oh well better too much than not enough IMO. But the residents run it here on a daily basis. Tons of intubations and chest tubes.
-Peds -- Major drawback in my book. They get 2 dedicated peds ED months and thats all she wrote (besides for 5 weeks of PICU).Not very strong... however there are 10 weeks of elective time and if I still feel this way I can just use elective months. I dont know why this has not been adressed, its seems that every other aspect of the program is strong.
-Transitioning to new hospital -- maybe it will be painless (Jacobi) or painful (Kings)... either way im confident that the same administration who put together this program at the old LAC can put together something equal or better at the new hospital
-?Malignacy -- I didnt think so when I went but apparently it has this rep according to some
2. Cook County -- Mirrors USC/LAC but in Chicago and ED setup is a little different
+'s -- same as USC
+patient population -- pretty much the same except African Americans are the majority as opposed to Hispanic patients at USC. Lots of very sick people in their high acuity zone (red). Lots of less sick people in their lower acuity zone (blue). Lots of healthy people in the fast track (green) but you dont staff fast track past pgy-2/EM-1 unless you are moonlighting in it.
+autonomy -- cheif resident who gave us tour said she runs things w/ or w/o attending but one is around if you need them
+procedures
+by far the strongest dept in hospital - dont need to call anybody, consultants rarely used, if pt is in the ED then EM does it
+get to tell family and friends this is where the TV show is LOL
+Chicago is really nice (if it wasnt cold, everybody would live here -- its like NY but not everybody is always in your damn face all the time) and affordable compared to both coasts.
+20 x 8 hr shifts a month which are really 8-8.5 as opposed to 10 hrs. Cheif, who was brutaly honest during the tour, told us this and I believe her. This leaves a lot of room to read and play in Chi
+Conference -- not 5 hrs in one day like all the other programs, spread out throughout the week so people like me with low attention spans can actualy concentrate from beginning to end. 100% attendence is expected and required.
+Have faculty all over including in CA programs (i think this says a lot)... you could get a job anywhere you wanted after done academic or private.
-trauma is not integrated -- you dont do any trauma unless you are on trauma. I know this will not impact training much and you are gonna be great regardless since trauma is cookbook, but I just think it would be fun to have trauma come in while seeing patients... but maybe im just naive.
-3.5 trauma months where you have to be a part of the 'trauma' team. This means lots of call and managing trauma pts after the actual resucitation... would be so much nicer if it was integrated and you could just resucitate/stabilize and then call surgery for the rest of the boring course like USC or Kings. You get some more ICU experience and procedures however as there is a trauma ICU that is part of the unit and the trauma team is responsible for it.
-not as many ED months as a 1-4 program (18 at Cook ED, 3.5 trauma, 2.5 community ED) although all other rotations are EM-related (EM ortho, tox, ultrasound, etc)
-Peds -- not as strong... in fact the Cook County peds ED is so weak they are going to phase it out of the curriculum according to the cheif resident. Interns do 2 months during pgy-2 and thats it. However, by the time it phases out I probably will have already done it and so the positive change wont effect me. Good news is they send you to very good peds hospitals for a month in each PGY-3 and PGY-4 year.
-A faculty member said there were plans of changing from 2-4 --> 1-4 because, unlike USC, they can swing it with current funding. Apparently they think they are loosing quality applicants due to there current format (with competition like U of Chi, UIC, Christ, etc i can see why this would happen). It would suck if this changed for the next class because then there would be 2 intern classes (my class of 2007 and the following in 2008) in the ED and that would make things difficult i think. Not to mention i would feel like i got shafted. Almost made up for by the fact that there is an improved chance of you matching to their PGY-1 which has no overnight call and 3-4 months of free (any dept) electives... however I would easily trade that in for 4-6 months of ED time during my intern year.
-Lack of Flow through the dept -- major drawback IMO. Although this is offset by the fact you will get to manage a lot of ICU type pts in the ED. You will float swans routinely. However, when coming on the shift you can get anywhere from 15-40 sign outs. This cuts back on #'s of new patients you will see per shift. However, I think Cook grads can probably handle shear volume better than anyone, and they get a lot of icu type experience in the ED.
-Primary care -- more so than other programs as told to me by other Chi medical students i met throughout the trail who had rotated at Cook, but thats what you get at a high volume county. Not a big deal to me... will get good and very fast at this but I thought it was worth mentioning. Apparently there was a fast track set up which is not staffed by EM to handle the problem, but the patient's adapted and have found ways to get passed it ("chest pain").
+/- Graduated responsibility -- Before seeing the sickest patients and managing resucitations, you have to complete an intern year and most of PGY-2 until they give you a 'resucitation class' before they let you touch the extremely sick patients. Where I rotated this was generaly started in PGY-2 year or even late PGY-1. I think at U of Chi you start seeing the high acuity from day 1. I think the way Jacobi does graduated responsibility is the best way (they do claim to have founded the principle) -- they have PGY-1 and PGY-2 take the sickest patients with a lot of oversight from the seniors and the farther in to residency you go the more of an administrative or teaching role you take... not the other way around. The red area is the area with the really sick/icu type patients, 80% of your shifts are here as pgy-3. Fast track (green) you run as a pgy-2 with most of your shifts in blue and green zones... I think there philosophy is learn volume management during pgy-2 and high acuity complex/resuc pts in pgy-3 and run the whole show pgy-4. Overal i dont think this is a big deal with regards to actual training and kind of like the non-integrated trauma thing, its just a matter of preference.
3. SUNY Downstate/Brooklyn AKA Kings County - similar to my top 2. Would be very happy in any of these as they are almost interchangeable
+'s -- same as USC, Cook
+1-4 format (no prelim/transitional year!) with lots of ED months (26.5 months total in the ED: 15.5 at Kings County, 5.5 at UHB right across the street which is pretty much like KC w/o the trauma and more time for thinking and teaching about patients, 2 months at OLM a community hospital, 2.5 months at a Staten Island University ED, 1 month at Brookdale also a knife and gun club close to KC and the second Level 1 (out of 3 but KC and Brookdale get the majority) in Brooklyn.
+autonomy
+trauma and procedures
+Brooklyn is nice (subjective)
+Have faculty all over including in CA programs (i think this says a lot)... you could get a job anywhere you wanted after done. Respected program even though not very old.
+shift breakdown: KC has 3 areas residents staff- main ED, critical care (trauma and unstable pts), peds. During year one and 2 you do peds during separate months and then about 1/5 or 1/4 peds shifts per month year 3 and 4. During year 1 and 2 you do 6-7/18 shifts in the critical care area with the rest in the main ED, and about 1/3 shifts in this area in year 3 and 4. You get exposure to the sickest pts from year 1.
-Too many rotations away from Kings County:
residents said they didnt like OLM too much but its only 2 months out of 4 years right now and they are thinking about dropping it altogether... Staten Island, while being a good experience due to high acuity with you being the only resident there thus getting all the cool stuff, takes 1.5-2 hrs to get to if you dont have a car (combo of bus/train/fairy? i dunno its complicated). This is kind of a big deal because even though you might have a car before moving to brooklyn I hear its very hard to keep due to parking issues so most people dont take their cars. There are a total of 5.5 months worth of rotations at Staten Island so commuting will suck indeed.
I don't know why they have to go away when they have Kings County and UHB at home... i think it is to satisfy contract issues because they pay part of your salary. If it wasn't for this I may have ranked King's higher but I don't know because...
-Worst ancillary services imaginable... do all your own blood draws, transporting, hooking pts up to monitors etc. I will just get very fast and adept at this. IMO patient population and subsequent training makes up for all the hassles. This is a big drawback though when compared to other county programs with better ancillary services.
-Lots of off service rotations and since EM is probably the strongest program in the hospital I dont know how high quality these are. Others like the burn unit at Staten Island just dont seem very high yeild.
-Ive heard many grads say its the most dysfunctional ED on the planet... LOL well at least when your done you can run any third world ED, right?
-Move to the new hospital left a lot of unorganization and chaos which from what I understand has calmed down considerably. For example...
-Considerable amount of new ED is sectioned off as 'B' area... pts go here after admitted and is run by internal medicine (gasp!). Residents say this improves flow and was done because there weren't enough resident to cover the main ER... I have to wonder about this... major drawback to me. However after seeing Cook ED (almost zero flow) this may indeed be a positive... i guess I won't fully know unless I match here and find out for myself.
-I have a feeling the administration doesn't administrate as much as they should. Residents at dinner had complaints in this area. Among other things, residents said they are in charge of making their own schedules with respect to what area of the ED (fast track, peds, main, critical care, etc.) during the last 2 years.
-Brooklyn is VERY VERY expensive even with compensated salary (or in case of Kings, partialy compensated... interns make $48k from what I hear compared to 55+ at SLR, Jacobi and other some other NY programs) so you will either be poor in a nice neighborhood or live in the ghetto and watch your back (like me) but have some spending money but not really that much because you will still likely pay close to a thousand a month.
-No subsidised housing -- would be very nice to have but is understandably absent
-US -- just bought new machines but from what residents have said there is room for improvement as teaching is not where it should be in this area
-Peds -- not as strong... just avg
4. Emory -- would be as happy here as my top 3... could have ranked anywhere from 1-4 it was a last minute decision... end of the day I wanted to get out of the South and experience something different as I will more than likely be coming back to the South when I am done with residency. Atlanta is very similar to the city I grew up in and I want to see/live differently for a while.
+See above 3 programs -- acuity, pathology, procedures, autonomy etc
+Grady has virtualy no competition in Atlanta for patients. I think this is important after seeing what the effect of oversaturation can do to areas like Ny where there are like 500+ hospitals in the area. Grady never runs out of patients or gets slow it is always completely packed with pts on stretchers with endless trails of people 24 hours a day. Others might see this as a negative. You will never sit down on a shift here... awesome!
+multiple hospital system - county, university, private, low acuity peds, high acuity peds -- allows you to see/manage everything
+peds - amongst the top tier in peds ed training at the high acuity (Egelston) hospital.. residents are very good at peds after graduation
+Atlanta - nice city with lots to do... probably not as active as NY, LA, or Chi but right under there. Also pretty diverse. I was impressed.
+Cost of living - can't beat the cost of living here with regards to big cities. You could def afford to buy here
+Ancillary services are not the worst (nurses draw blood, etc but you may have to ask more than once and it may take a while) but the nurses/clerks were some of the worst (some mean, others lazy -- probably not intolerable but just the worst I had seen up to that point) I ever met (at Grady), but I did have an overabundance of night shifts so maybe that is where they put the social misfits (thats what somebody else told me, a friend I rotated with worked mostly days and had no problems).
+Strong off service rotations. Medicine and Surgery is strong at Emory but not in the ED. Great situation for the EM residents as they should get a great experience in all rotations.
+Access to Emory -- access to everything Emory University has. Nice.
+3 year program -- no prelim/transitional year... gee maybe I shoulda... nevermind too late now.
-Grady gets a lot of trauma, but trauma surgery is activated in all major traumas and they get the cool procedures (chest tubes, surg airways, thoracotomy, etc)... however im sure if you ask them you could get some while on shift. EM handles airway all the time though and runs the lower level trauma.
-Residents stay 1-2+ hours after shifts... so their advertised 10's are sometimes 12's and 8's can go to 11 but usualy more like 10. ~ 20 shifts/month along with extra things outside of work like computer quizes/modules or some other kind of busy work the residents were talking about ensures you will be spending a LOT of time doing EM which is not bad but we all want a life, dont we? I think second and third year, however, you get 2 weekends/month off because weekend shifts are still 12 hrs (which, again, go overtime). I would still go here in a hearbeat though. The work pays off. The senior residents were very good at what they did.
-With all the different hospitals you only get something like 13 months at Grady main ED throughout the 3 years, but the senior residents said it was more than enough.
-Primary care -- good thing there are lots of rotating students and off service residents... with a census approaching 200,000 you are going to get your fair share
-Driving to all the hospitals which are in different parts of Atlanta will take time
-Lack of money -- Its hard trying to find things when you need them, like a central line kit, or a nonrebreather mask, or an ultrasound machine that works lol... This was very frustrating. Again, this applies only to Grady but you are here most of the time. Emory and Crawford Long are very nice.
5. Temple -- IMO one of the best 'newish' program ('97 i think)... would love to match here as well. Administrative team including Dr. McNamara were very cool.
+ acuity, pathology, procedures (they get a lot-- gave actual numbers at interview)
+ A resident at Drexel compared one of the hospitals they worked at during PGY-2 year to Temple. They said it was there high-acuity hospital with the sickest patients and resembled Temple ED. Why would I only want 1 year to rotate there when I could be at Temple for 3? The ED was very active.
+ Philly seemed pretty cool, I would like to live there... an affordable east coast city, who woulda thought? With a lot of medical schools and colleges in the area im sure its a fun place.
+ some peds months at CHOP
+/- County like feel due to pt population, but in more of a controlled environment with a lot of one on one time with attendings --> more teaching, but less volume and autonomy than some of the places I ranked higher (IMO -- I only observed for a couple of hours so I could be wrong).
- Segregated trauma experience - They mention many times during the interview that Temple gets a LOT of penetrating trauma, but you don't really get to deal with it unless you are on trauma (one month/yr or something like that) or the trauma team gets swamped (when i asked residents how often that was i got conflicting answers)
- intern shift schedule -- i think they work like 6 days in a row before getting any time off... not a big deal but I just thought I would mention. Much better in the following years though.
+/- Only take 10 residents... I bet this program gets really competitive pretty soon. The 4-5 Philly students I talked to in the 3 days I spent there said they thought Temple was the best EM program in the city. (I spoke to students from Temple, Jeff, Drexel, and somewhere else I dont remeber).
6. U of Chi -- a great program where you will get great training but also have a nice life while doing it... you wont find me complaining if I matched here
+ sick patients -- i couldnt tell who were sicker either these or in the red zone at Cook, it was a close call. In contrast too Cook, not many patients who werent sick.
+ moonlighting after 1st ED month ensures you can/will/should have $$ during residency... basicaly you pull 1-2 extra shifts/month in the fast track with an attending on (forgot how much it pays but it was a good deal trust me) and then during 2nd yr and beyond you can do 2-3 international flights/yr that pay $1000 in addition to the fast track shifts if you want them. This is all optional but I don't know why you wouldnt take advantage of at least some of this.
+ shift schedule (8's) allows for time off in +Chicago
+ curriculum (rotation schedule) is probably the best I have seen in any program. All ICU and ED months guarantees everything is high yeild.
+ Peds experience is one of the best. Other Chicago programs send there residents here.
+ PD is a really nice guy and seems like a huge resident advocate... a shame hes leaving at the end of next year
+ Waterski is there he will make sure you have a good time when you're off
+/- flying -- seems like you spend a lot of time in the helicopter... the educational value of this has already been debated on the board and i'm not so convinced its worth all the time you spend doing it. Might learn more just seeing patients in the ED despite the helicopter's cool factor.
+/- County like feel due to pt population with lots of autonomy and w/o amny inefeciencies although ED is pretty small (i guess after seeing the Univ of Chi campus I was expecting the Hilton or something).
- biggest drawback for me was having to go to the private hospital for so many months... ~12 months at Univ of Chicago and ~7 at the private. This hospital is pretty far and I don't think you get nearly as much out of it as the main university ED.
- segregated trauma -- one month/yr at Gun&Knife club type ED where all you do is trauma. Main ED is not a level I for adults so no real trauma there and I dont think the private sees much either.
7. Jacobi -- wanted to rank this higher, but ended up not liking it as much as i thought i would after talking to people and interviewing. Still I think I would get excellent training and would be more than happy to match here.
+national name recognition --> job anywhere after residency
+pt population -- Not quite as crazy (acuity/pathology) in Jacobi as Kings, LAC, Cook, Grady, etc... but still up there. Very sick pts at Monte, though. Note that I didnt rotate here this is only after observing for about an hour or so each place.
+graduated responsibility - 1st and 2nd years see the sickest patients, 2nd and 3rd years do the resuc, 3rd and 4rth years do teaching, 4rth years do admin work... nice system
+Lots ED months in 1-4 format
+Resident comradere -- they really seemed to enjoy going to work at Jocobi together, really looked like a fun bunch of people to be around
+Trauma -- actualy completely 100% run there own trauma... Ive found some programs say this but the trauma team actualy comes down with ALL major traumas. At Jacobi they only come down when they are called.
+Bronx - People say there is nothing to do, but you can afford living here and can keep a car... ~45 min to Manhattan. Hospital is in a pretty nice neighborhood, better than the one I grew up in. I was surprised.
+Subsidized housing - large, adequate, near work, $700/month
+Peds - Monte peds again is great, but limited # of months there
-Lack of flow through dept -- pts sit there forever decreasing # of new pts seen per shift
-conference I attended was the worst I had been to but this was probably isolated and speaker dependent. Lots of emphasis on basic science. Again this is probably speaker dependent and I was in on the wrong day.
-People keep saying "the training at Monte is exceptional..." but you only do something like 20-30% of your training there. Very sick patients, but again limited access here. Most of the program is at Jacobi which is great, but just not the experience of Monte. Ive heard more than once that Monte > Jacobi.
-5 x 12 hr consecutive shifts/week for first 2 years. I didnt even ask if 12's were really 12's or 13-14's because I honestly didnt want to know. This is just ridiculous. If it was only intern year I would say suck it up but 2 straight years is going to take its toll. Combined with the fact that a rotator who I trust told me there isnt as much teaching there as there should be and residents are responsible to move the meat at Jacobi means that you will have to do a lot of self-studying. I want to work, but this is just too much IMO. The 5 days are consecutive and the last day is a night shift which means 1 of your 2 days off is a pseudo-day off.
-Resident who gave us a tour told us he came to Jacobi because it was "Jacobi" the place that everybody talked about along with Cinci and Indy. Later admitted program may be riding its past reputation along with Bellvue but not to the same extent (resident trashed Bellvue and later said Kings was dysfunctional but a good program... another resident later said the exact same thing)
-ancillary services -- draw your own blood and even push your own drugs on all patients
-Bronx - after seeing Manhattan and Brooklyn, it is a step down
8. UTSW -- would have considered more strongly but did not want to continue living in the South... just wanted to switch it up at this point in my life
+ county but more academic from what I can tell. Incredibly knowledgeable faculty teach more than at other places which have the volume of Parkland. There was some teaching on almost every patient.
+ peds -- probably the strongest or tied with Univ of Chi for the strongest peds out of places I went
+ lots of money for a county--> great ancillary services and no shortage of supplies and the ED is actualy very nice
+ really nice people -- faculty and residents
+ Dallas -- affordable city living
- surgery runs trauma with little input from EM although EM residents get airway all the time... PD likes it this way he says sick medicine > trauma and I kind of agree however it would be nice to have more trauma experience than 2 months as part of the surgery team. Not much penetrating either mostly blunt.
- Int Med has a whole team in the ED all the time seeing patients. There are 3 ED teams. One comprised of EM residents lead by a second year seeing not so acute patients, another comprised of EM residents lead by a third year seeing the sickest patients, and one team comprised of IM residents who see every third patient or something. However there is considerable overlap between the two EM teams. Not a neverending supply of patients like at Grady, but enough to go around.
- Residents didnt seem to have the same exorbiant amount of chest tubes, subclavians, etc as those in some of the other county programs I went to, but it was still enough. Tons of LP's, suturing, I&D, blocks though.
- Division of surgery as opposed to department although I am convinced this does not make much of a difference as EM is a division of Medicine at Univ of Chicago which is definitely a well established residency
- curriculum has only 2 adult ED months during pgy-1 with multiple rotations on medicine floors and even peds wards... somewhat made up by the fact that the last 2 years are almost exclusively EM but the pgy-1 year is as bad as a transitional or prelim year.
- very strong departments at UTSW, almost every residency program here is very good and EM is one of the newest so you might have a lot of people in the ED claiming to have authority over your patient... but you have excellent off service instructors and consultants.
9. Jacksonville -- would have ranked in top 3 but will not live in Jacksonville. Surprised as I did not hear a lot about this program before I rotated there. Very nice 3 yr county, like a smaller Grady. Senior residents were the sharpest bunch I met. If my mom got hurt and she had to be taken care of by residents, I would send her to these ppl. Drs. Morrissey, Godwin, and Caro (the administrative staff) are really cool as well and everyone is fun to be around. If you are looking for a county type program in a not so big city you need to check this place out.
+ pt population --> acuity, pathology
+ procedures -- an intern told me they had like 1000+ procedures already.
+ autonomy -- it is the senior resident's ED... faculty are always there and know whats going on but only step in if they think something is wrong
+ conferences -- lots of hands on and simulator use at almost every conference
+ trauma -- lots of it. Technicaly surgery runs it MWF and ED TeThSa or something like that but the way it really works is a trauma comes in and then they have to go to the OR so the EM residents end up running most of it until the trauma team comes back and takes another one... not a lot of penetrating though
+ run hospital codes and responsible for difficult airways in the hospital (not anesthesia)
+ lots of money for a county--> great ancillary services and no shortage of supplies although the main ED is not very nice looking and is small/cramped
- location -- if you want to live in a big city this is not the place for you... if you are married or enjoy living in a big town or by the beach you should go here.
- one isolated month in resuc/trauma zone of ED (pgy-2) and then only ~3-4 shifts there/month... this area is awesome but very limited time there... 1/2 of the rest of shifts are in fast track doing mainly primary care
- you will not have a life intern year because you will be at work... + however 2nd yr is ~45 hrs and 3rd year is something like high 30's when residents moonlight$$ a lot
10. Univ of Maryland -- would have considered more strongly but I didn't want to live in Baltimore. Main ED was very similar to Temple though. I think it would be a great place to do residency and you would come out very well trained. Even if I mathced here at the program I ranked last I would be happy and confident I would receive excellent training. This was strictly a location issue. edit: I knew Baltimore was close to DC but I didn't know it was w/i a half hour... I prob should have ranked much higher.
+ conference was the best I had ever attended
+ academic curriculum is based on journal articles not books. I bet every program would do this if they could put in the time. I really think this is the best academic curriculum to learn from. Best i have seen at least.
+ sick patients
+/- County like feel due to pt population (see Temple)
- segregated trauma even though it's 4 months at the famous Shock Trama (i didnt see what the big deal was it just looked like a regular trauma unit with like 8 or 10 rooms instead of 4 or 5)... but no doubt you will get world class trauma instruction the months you are there. But you will have to wear gay pink scrubs with oversized baby blue booties. It kind of takes all the hardcoreness away from 'shock trauma' dont you think?
- having to rotate through the VA hospital for 3-4 months -- i dont see what this adds when Univ of MD ED is such a great experience.
I did not rank:
UT Houston -- 40% of shifts are trauma... i just think that is too much and you dont do anything else but trauma on these shifts. You will probably be trauma expert by end of year 1. I think this has to do with the fact that Houston only has two level 1's. You should see the helicopter pad, its ridiculous. There are like 5 helicopters coming in bringing trauma. If you want to spend 1/2 your residency doing trauma, check this place out, but I think they are just farming you out as labor. Technicaly surgery runs it, but the residents said there are no problems and they have a great relationship with surgery, I believe them.
Drexel -- The ICU experience is unique. A team of EM residents run a private ICU for something like 6 months throughout 3 years. This is the reason I wanted to check this place out. I wish more programs had something like this. There curriculum is also great, only ICU and ED months very similar to Univ of Chi. The main ED left something to be desired, however. As I mentioned a resident I met said during second year you rotate through a high acuity ED that was similar to Temple's main ED. Main ED just seemed very average. More like a place you would work than a place you would train. Didn't think I would get to see the things I would and train to the degree as the other places I went.
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- Joined
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1. Cincy
2. BIDMC
3. Indy
4. Pitt
5. UNC
6. BWH/MGH
7. Case/MetroHealth
8. VCU
9. OSU
10. UVA
11. Duke
Good luck everyone!
2. BIDMC
3. Indy
4. Pitt
5. UNC
6. BWH/MGH
7. Case/MetroHealth
8. VCU
9. OSU
10. UVA
11. Duke
Good luck everyone!
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2005
- Messages
- 154
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9. Manhatten BI
8. Newark BI
7. Lincoln
6. LSU-Charity
5. GWU
4. Loma Linda
3. Hopkins
2. Jacobi
1. LAC-USC
I started the interview season wanting a high-volume, 4 year, county-type place. About halfway through I realized gut feel was huge too, so I ended up changing around the order of my ROL (which is why it's all over the place, both geographically and in terms of type of training facility). Ultimately, I was impressed with all of the programs above, but aside from LA County, which I knew was going to be my #1 choice about 30 seconds after I got there, I had a really difficult time figuring out the order. I hope everyone matches someplace where they'll be happy, and that I don't end up scrambling!
Good luck everyone! --sp
8. Newark BI
7. Lincoln
6. LSU-Charity
5. GWU
4. Loma Linda
3. Hopkins
2. Jacobi
1. LAC-USC
I started the interview season wanting a high-volume, 4 year, county-type place. About halfway through I realized gut feel was huge too, so I ended up changing around the order of my ROL (which is why it's all over the place, both geographically and in terms of type of training facility). Ultimately, I was impressed with all of the programs above, but aside from LA County, which I knew was going to be my #1 choice about 30 seconds after I got there, I had a really difficult time figuring out the order. I hope everyone matches someplace where they'll be happy, and that I don't end up scrambling!
Good luck everyone! --sp
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6 with Cincy as number 1!? I have an ulcer developing as we speak.
Match day is going to be more interesting than I perhaps want it to be...- Joined
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1. UCSD
2. Maryland
3. Hopkins
4. USC/LAC
5. Pitt
6. Indy
7. Vandy
8. CWRU/Metro
9. Christiana
10. Ohio State
11. Emory
12. Connecticut
now i need to find some way to go to sleep and wake up on the 15th.
2. Maryland
3. Hopkins
4. USC/LAC
5. Pitt
6. Indy
7. Vandy
8. CWRU/Metro
9. Christiana
10. Ohio State
11. Emory
12. Connecticut
now i need to find some way to go to sleep and wake up on the 15th.
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6 with Cincy as number 1!? I have an ulcer developing as we speak.
Hopefully everyone really is happy with their #2.
Or just start bumping people off.
D
deleted109597
Had we posted earlier, we could have sold Cincy rankings. Some money might have moved it down my list.
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1. Indy
2. U of Arizona
3. Utah
4. Maricopa
5. Iowa
6. Vandy
7. Peoria
8. UMKC
9. WashU
I liked all of the places that I interviewed at. My #1 and #2 were a tough choice. It came down to my wife wanting a nice, big, grassy back yard for the kiddos to play in. WashU is a great residency, but I'm looking to get out and get done.
2. U of Arizona
3. Utah
4. Maricopa
5. Iowa
6. Vandy
7. Peoria
8. UMKC
9. WashU
I liked all of the places that I interviewed at. My #1 and #2 were a tough choice. It came down to my wife wanting a nice, big, grassy back yard for the kiddos to play in. WashU is a great residency, but I'm looking to get out and get done.
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I never imagined how much gut feel went into these rankings. Like many of the above, I started off with a completely different pre-interview ranklist. I did the whole Excel spreadsheet with numbers to objectify everything. In the end, I found myself manipulating the numbers to reflect the kind of gut feeling I had. Pointless really. My wife and I were looking for a place that would be fun for her, our less than one-year-old son, and myself over the next 3 years ...without sacreficing education.
1. West Virginia University SOM: 100% board pass rate over the last 5 years. Great Wilderness Medicine opportunities. Up and coming program with new faculty from Boston and NYC. Great outdoor fun (skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, huge white water rafting, hiking, etc etc). Fit residents to run, bike, ski, board, kayak, and hang out with.
2. MSU Kalamazoo: PD=Overton. Enough said. He is hugely politically connected and can get his residents those unavailable, unadvertised jobs. 100% board pass rate over last 16 years. Besides that, they show a vested interest in their residents and resident families.
3. Beth Israel Manhattan: Great teaching as many attendings are double and triple board certified. I had a great interview day. I left there pumped about this community program in the heart of NYC. Wife wants to be able to shop for knock off purses on Canal Street anytime. I will go broke if we match here. sigh.
4. Akron General: Great pass rate on their boards as well. I rotated here, and know the place pretty well. Excellent community program. Attendings are great people as well as great physicians. PD, Kyriakedes is amazingly friendly and I know of personal stories of him going way out of his way for students and residents. Residents are very happy here. They rotate at B-more Shock Trauma as well as Cleve/Metro and Akron Children's. Affordable.
5. DMC: Its Recievings. Great national reputation for trauma. Looks like you get a phenomenal pediatric experience here as well. Residents are really upbeat and have fun. I was terribly impressed. I still dont know why I didnt rank this place higher... my excel spreadsheet had this place off the charts. But my gut feeling led me to the community programs... strange how it all works out.
6. St. Vincent Toledo: great moonlighting $$$$$$$$ and tons of flight time.
7. MSU Lansing: Everything was just OK. No complaints & nothing special to say. You are faculty of MSU if you match here. Swanky college town.
8. University of Nevada: Facilities are phenomenal. Agree with above, PD seemed off of a bit, like she took no ownership of the program. Wierd. Plus state law of no moonlighting as a resident.
9. University at Buffalo: Great U/S and EMS. I had a great interview day. Thought their residents were an awesome group. However, only ICU moonlighting here, no ED moonlighting allowed.
10. Geisinger: Great flight experience, country living.
11 St. John Hospital Detroit: Good pathology, great volume, excellent TEMS program. But PD is a nut job. I was entertained and laughed through the entire interview... but not impressed in the end. Thought it was unprofessional and disrespectful of my time.
12. Synergy in Saginaw, MI: Loved this program, most rotations are one on one with attendings. Great PD, she is very well connected and a REAL resident advocate. Terrible location, wife said no way.
Best of luck to all those gunning for Cincy!!!
1. West Virginia University SOM: 100% board pass rate over the last 5 years. Great Wilderness Medicine opportunities. Up and coming program with new faculty from Boston and NYC. Great outdoor fun (skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, huge white water rafting, hiking, etc etc). Fit residents to run, bike, ski, board, kayak, and hang out with.
2. MSU Kalamazoo: PD=Overton. Enough said. He is hugely politically connected and can get his residents those unavailable, unadvertised jobs. 100% board pass rate over last 16 years. Besides that, they show a vested interest in their residents and resident families.
3. Beth Israel Manhattan: Great teaching as many attendings are double and triple board certified. I had a great interview day. I left there pumped about this community program in the heart of NYC. Wife wants to be able to shop for knock off purses on Canal Street anytime. I will go broke if we match here. sigh.
4. Akron General: Great pass rate on their boards as well. I rotated here, and know the place pretty well. Excellent community program. Attendings are great people as well as great physicians. PD, Kyriakedes is amazingly friendly and I know of personal stories of him going way out of his way for students and residents. Residents are very happy here. They rotate at B-more Shock Trauma as well as Cleve/Metro and Akron Children's. Affordable.
5. DMC: Its Recievings. Great national reputation for trauma. Looks like you get a phenomenal pediatric experience here as well. Residents are really upbeat and have fun. I was terribly impressed. I still dont know why I didnt rank this place higher... my excel spreadsheet had this place off the charts. But my gut feeling led me to the community programs... strange how it all works out.
6. St. Vincent Toledo: great moonlighting $$$$$$$$ and tons of flight time.
7. MSU Lansing: Everything was just OK. No complaints & nothing special to say. You are faculty of MSU if you match here. Swanky college town.
8. University of Nevada: Facilities are phenomenal. Agree with above, PD seemed off of a bit, like she took no ownership of the program. Wierd. Plus state law of no moonlighting as a resident.
9. University at Buffalo: Great U/S and EMS. I had a great interview day. Thought their residents were an awesome group. However, only ICU moonlighting here, no ED moonlighting allowed.
10. Geisinger: Great flight experience, country living.
11 St. John Hospital Detroit: Good pathology, great volume, excellent TEMS program. But PD is a nut job. I was entertained and laughed through the entire interview... but not impressed in the end. Thought it was unprofessional and disrespectful of my time.
12. Synergy in Saginaw, MI: Loved this program, most rotations are one on one with attendings. Great PD, she is very well connected and a REAL resident advocate. Terrible location, wife said no way.
Best of luck to all those gunning for Cincy!!!
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1. USC/LAC
2. Loma Linda
3. Kern County
4. Cook County
5. Lincoln
6. Resurrection
USC/LAC was my #1 since summer time when I rotated... absolutely incredible pt flow, trauma, great teaching and definitely not malignant. USC is my 1st choice because of both training and location...the rest of the list is mainly location based good luck everyone.
2. Loma Linda
3. Kern County
4. Cook County
5. Lincoln
6. Resurrection
USC/LAC was my #1 since summer time when I rotated... absolutely incredible pt flow, trauma, great teaching and definitely not malignant. USC is my 1st choice because of both training and location...the rest of the list is mainly location based
good luck everyone.
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How is Cincinnati abbreviated? Cincy or Cinci... first one to get it right wins a residency spot. Citations are bonus points.
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- Feb 22, 2007
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If for no other reason than to calm fears that everyone is ranking Cinci/Cincy number one, and to maybe start fears about the now 3 of us who are ranking Denver numero uno...
1. Denver
2. NM
3. U of AZ
4. U of Chicago
5. UPitt
6. Utah
7. UMichigan
8. Regions
9. Northwestern
10. Maricopa
Didn't rank UIC based on feel. Best of luck to everyone!
1. Denver
2. NM
3. U of AZ
4. U of Chicago
5. UPitt
6. Utah
7. UMichigan
8. Regions
9. Northwestern
10. Maricopa
Didn't rank UIC based on feel. Best of luck to everyone!
D
deleted109597
Neither. It is Cinti (at least that is what it says on the back of the fire rescue shirts).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati,_Ohio
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- Messages
- 228
- Reaction score
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I need an acute abdominal series. I think I just perf'd.
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haha...man i think i need one too...looks like LAC-USC just tied Indy with 4 folks who ranked it #1
Good luck to all!- Joined
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As a native OHIOan people call it Cincy
As a side note: I know I'm going out on a limb here but does anyone think this process is ridiculous? Anyone feel like getting motivated and getting rid of the match process?
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